I read a review of this
story where the reviewer posited that this story is the first traditional
Eighth Doctor story in a long while. I
agree wholeheartedly with this fact that this is a traditional story, and it
would make a nice return to form if it weren’t for the fact this story was a
completely terrible story from a terrible author. Will Schindler last wrote The Twilight Kingdom which wasn’t a good story and with his second
effort he proves that he suffers from Terry Nation syndrome where he basically rewrites
the main ideas of The Twilight Kingdom,
adds in some boring subplot about a creepy child to add as a deus ex machina
and almost half the runtime to tell the story and you have a recipe for disaster.
The plot sees C’rizz ask
the Doctor and Charley to take them to a world untouched by human hands to see
something like a Garden of Eden so the Doctor pilots the TARDIS to the twin
planets of Caludar and Endarra. Endarra
is famous for the fact that because of a treaty involving a convoluted backstory
concerning a war, no one has stepped foot on the planet for millions of
years. Of course because this is Doctor
Who there are people on the planet and experiments are being performed on a
criminal who begins to exhibit psychic abilities and take over much like the
villain in The Twilight Kingdom and
it’s up to the Doctor and C’rizz to find a way to save the day while Charley
acts like an idiot. The many problems of
this story begin here as the plot is shoehorned into a quick seventy minute story
that has no time to work out what it wants to do with the plot. The plot just sort of happens without the
Doctor having to do anything to save the day as the TARDIS travelers are just
there for exposition to how the plot is going to eventually complete itself.
The characters of the
story are also completely boring to listen to as the supporting cast of
scientists and the criminally insane has been done much better in Kinda and doesn’t need to be attempted
again. There are only two characters I
remember, the villain Flood who is standard crazy played by Michael Chance who
is the only actor having any sort of fun in the role and Galayana who is the
annoying child who keeps chanting scardey cat and acting as the deus ex machina
to complete the story. The actress Linda
Bartram is extremely annoying in the role and really should just be replaced
with an adult as she could have been super creepy. The regulars don’t come across much
better. Paul McGann is the worst
offender as he gives a performance that is one of his dull days where he can’t
be asked to put in effort for anything he is giving. India Fisher comes next and is giving an
alright performance, but in this story Charley is portrayed as an idiot who
falls for Flood’s lies which I just can’t stand. Conrad Westmass as C’rizz is the closest
thing we get for a good character even if his morals are completely reversed
and contradictory with Terror Firma
which I just cannot believe as that was only three releases beforehand.
To summarize, Scardey Cat is really just a story that
could have been good and has very little to shine through the darkness. It wants to be a horror story but fails
without any real scares and the acting is some of the worst in Big Finish’s
catalogue. 20/100
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